Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 201 (2011) 301–311 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jvolgeores Morphometric and morphological development of Holocene cinder cones: A field and remote sensing study in the Tolbachik volcanic field, Kamchatka Moshe Inbar a,⁎, Michael Gilichinsky b, Ivan Melekestsev c, Dmitry Melnikov c, Natasha Zaretskaya d a Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Haifa, Israel b Department of Forest Resource Management, SLU, Umea, Sweden c Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, RAS, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia d Geological Institute, RAS, Moscow, Russia article info abstract Article history: The evolution of landscape over time is a central aspect of geological, paleogeographical and Received 14 January 2010 geomorphological studies. Volcanic features like cinder cones offer the opportunity to monitor the processes Accepted 18 July 2010 and development of the landscape. Cinder cones are perhaps the simplest and most common volcanic Available online 24 July 2010 landforms in the world. Morphological and morphometric study of cinder cones has proven an efficient tool for determining their relative dates, and the erosional processes affecting them. The extensive Kamchatka Keywords: volcanic province (Russian Far East), with its large Tolbachik cinder cone field, is an excellent case study for Kamchatka volcanic province fi Tolbachik eruption spatial and temporal classi cation and calibration of changes in morphometric values with time. cinder cones We show how the morphological and morphometric values of the monogenetic cinder cones, measured in morphometry the field and by digital elevation models, can be used to validate their age and erosional processes. volcanic geomorphology Field data were GPS measurements of cinder cones formed at the Tolbachik 1975–1976 eruption and of landscape evolution Holocene cinder cones; erosion processes on the cinder cones and lava flows were identified and evaluated. For every studied cinder cone morphometric parameters were assessed on the basis of remotely sensed data and digital elevation model. Morphometric measurements were taken of cone height and slope and average axis diameter and the height–width ratio was obtained. The comparison of morphometric parameters calculated from ASTER DEM and topographic map clearly supports the concept of relative morphometric dating as the most recent cinder cones are always associated with the highest slopes and h/W ratio. The measured morphometric values of the recent Tolbachik cinder cones are valuable benchmark data for determining erosion rates, such as the measured values for the Paricutin cone in Mexico after the 1943 eruption. The variability of the morphometric values of the recent cinder cones is due to their lithological coarse composition. A comparison with the older cinder cones in the area shows that the climatic conditions of the Kamchatka peninsula and the slow development of vegetation cover determine a high rate of erosion and rapid change in the morphometric values, as compared to published values for other volcanic fields. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction and morphometric study of cinder cones has proven an efficient tool for determining their relative dates of cinder cones and the erosional Morphological studies of volcanic landforms have multiplied in processes affecting them (Wood, 1980b; Hasenaka and Carmichael, recent decades, primarily after the eruption of St Helens volcano in 1985; Hooper, 1995; Inbar and Risso, 2001; Parrot, 2007). Such 1980 and in the light of the need to interpret extraterrestrial analyses generally attempt to measure the morphometric values of morphologies (Wood, 1980a; Thouret, 1999). cinder cones, e.g. height, diameter, and slope, and the relations among Cinder cones are “perhaps the simplest and most common volcanic them. The evolution of cinder cones erosion might be associated to the landforms in existence” (Wood, 1980b). It is probably the only one on period of time of exposure to degradation processes. The progressive the globe with a distinct and defined initial date of formation, and change of morphometric parameters with increasing of age is the lasting no more than a few million years, before erosional processes basis for relative dating of cones by comparative measurements flatten it, a short time in the earth's geological history. Morphological (Wood, 1980a; Hooper and Sheridan, 1998). The evolution of landscape over time is a central aspect of geological, paleogeographical and geomorphological studies. Recent ⁎ Corresponding author. volcanic features like cinder cones offer the opportunity to monitor E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Inbar). the processes and development of the landscape. Morphometric and 0377-0273/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2010.07.013 302 M. Inbar et al. / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 201 (2011) 301–311 morphological studies, together with remote sensing, tephrochronol- 2. Physical background ogy and methods of absolute dating, are efficient tools for determining ages of cinder cones, their morphological evolution and spatial–time Kamchatka forms the northern segment of the Kurile-Kamchatka development of aerial volcanic fields all over the world and in island arch which is a part of Pacific “fire ring.” This peninsula extends extraterrestrial conditions. for ca 1300 km, SW to NE between 51° and 62° N. Kamchatka and the The large Kamchatka volcanic field (Russian Far East), with adjacent Kurile Islands are the above-water part of a 2000-km probably the largest number of monogenetic cinder cones in the asymmetrical range, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific world, is an excellent case study for spatial and temporal classifica- Ocean (Ponomareva et al., 2001), underwater part is 300–700 km tion. Many zones of monogenetic volcanism exist, with tens of cinder wide; the maximum width of the landmass is 420 km. Main property cones (such as the Tolbachinsky, Tolmachev and Sedanka fields), and of the last 100 million years of Kamchatka geological history is the fields of parasitic cones on the slopes of large volcanoes (such as continuous magmatic and volcanic activity proceeding at varying Kliuchevskoy plateau). Cones are located all along the ~1000 km of intensity over time. For most of the Cenozoic period an orogenic the Kamchatka volcanic belt, at various elevations above sea level; foldbelt was developed, and in the Pliocene–Pleistocene a volcanic they are of different types of pyroclastic components. In particular, arch developed with adequate volcanic processes and landforms. they are located at various distances from large volcanic centers, that The modern climate is very humid in most of the peninsula, with is, they are covered by soil-pyroclastic successions of different precipitation rate ranging from 2500 mm/year on the east coast to thickness, and this influences their morphometric features. 500–800 mm/year in the central part of Kamchatka. Winters are cool Kamchatka peninsula, like many other volcanic areas of the world, and snowy and summers are wet and cloudy (Solomina et al., 2007). is blanketed by a soil-pyroclastic cover, representing the alteration of The Tolbachik cinder cone field is one of the youngest volcanic ashes of different volcanoes and buried soils (peat) or sandy loams. landforms in Kamchatka, located in the SW part of the Kliuchevskaya This cover is a few tens of centimeters thick in areas far from the active volcanic group, which is the largest in Kamchatka (Fig. 1). The volcanoes and increases up to several meters at their source. The Tolbachik field is a huge, inclined lava plane, formed as a result of continuously accumulating soil/peat-pyroclastic successions in the abundant eruptions of many cinder and lava cones and some fissure areas under the Late-Pleistocene glaciation are usually of Holocene eruptions, with a total surface area of 875 km2 and these volcanic ages; older covers have been eroded by series of glaciations. centers are related to the 70-km long Tolbachik regional cinder cone The Late Pleistocene and Holocene cinder cones are well preserved zone. This zone has a NNE bearing (azimuth 20°–25°) in the south in Kamchatka while older forms (e.g. of Early–Middle Pleistocene age) crossing the Plosky Tolbachik volcano, and changing direction to NE are markedly eroded due to geomorphic processes, particularly (azimuth 40°–45°) (Fig. 1). during the last stage of the Pleistocene glaciation. Unlike other large volcanic fields with hundreds of monogenetic 3. Tolbachik — chronology of eruptions cinder cones, such as the Michoacan-Guanajuato (Mexico), San Francisco (Arizona, USA), Andino-Cuyano (Mendoza, Argentina), The Tolbachik cinder cones erupted during the last ten kiloyears Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) and Hawaii with a long list of (ky) at 200–2500 m a.s.l. The lower time boundary estimation was published works (Scott and Trask, 1971; Porter, 1972; Bloomfield, based on the evidence that the moraine of the last Upper Pleistocene 1975; Settle, 1979; Martin del Pozzo, 1982; Dohrenwend et al., 1986; glaciation was covered by lava and pyroclastic deposits of the oldest Wolfe et al., 1987; Hooper, 1995; Inbar and Risso, 2001; Dóniz et al., cinder cones. The age-related cinder cone groups were subdivided 2008, among others), the Kamchatka cinder cone field enjoys few based on tephrochronological